They each have ten fingers and ten toes, chubby little legs and a perfectly upturned nose. Snuggling under a blanket and with a woolly hat each to keep them warm, here are Faith and Hope Williams, the Siamese twins who some doctors believed would never be born.

Their mother, Laura, had initially been advised to terminate the girls, but last Wednesday, at 9.40am, she made medical history by becoming the world's youngest mother of conjoined twins at just 18 years of age.

Now in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, she and her husband, Aled, 28, tell of their overwhelming joy at the arrival of their two daughters, describing their often difficult journey and explaining how Faith and Hope, with a combined weight of 10lb 8oz, continue to defy all medical expectations.

Miracle: Faith and Hope lie together in an embrace at Great Ormond Street Hospital

'After I came round from the operation they wheeled me in to see them. They had tucked Hope's arm underneath and it was Faith's arm that I could see. I touched her and I took her hand and she was grasping it. They were both blowing little bubbles.

'They were so beautiful, I couldn't stop looking at them. After everything everyone said, I'm so glad they've proved them all wrong.

'I admit it has been hard. The day before I had them, they gave us our first 3-D scan, which was brilliant as it was the first time we could really see them, that they were there waiting.

'We knew that conjoined twins very rarely make it through the first 24 hours and we could see that one girl was a bit smaller than the other so we called the little one Hope and the bigger one Faith.

'The night before the operation I couldn't sleep. I prepared myself for the worst, just in case, but from the first time I felt them kick, I thought they were going to be OK. And they're still here. They're little fighters.

'They have all their own limbs and their own hearts. The only thing they share is the liver and as that's the only major organ that can regenerate, the doctors can split it between the two of them and it will grow back.

'The first night they turned down the ventilators and by the second night they wanted to know if I had any milk ready for them. And when one cries, it doesn't affect the other one, which can often happen, but it hasn't with Faith and Hope.'

Overjoyed: Aled and Laura with little Faith and Hope

Aled added: 'You do worry; you know what might go wrong but you just have to push it to one side. And something inside me said it was going to be OK.

'I was sleeping next to Laura on a camp-bed and the night before I said, "It's going to be all right." It's weird, I don't know what it was ... and I was right, I'm never normally right.

'If we didn't have God on our side they wouldn't be here. It was Him who kept them in this world. Conjoined twins happen in only one of 400,000 births and then for them both to come out and be alive, it's a miracle.'

About 40 per cent of conjoined twins are aborted, which is what one doctor advised Laura and Aled to do when the condition was first spotted at the first, 12-week scan.

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They were told that the babies - who are joined from the breastbone to the top of their navels - were unlikely to survive and the pregnancy could be so dangerous she might never have any more children.

Yet the young couple refused a termination on moral grounds, and while their courage and faith have been rewarded, there were no guarantees that the outcome would be so positive.

Conjoined twins occur when the single egg from which identical twins develop fails to divide properly after conception, and it usually happens in women aged 25 to 40 years old. The survival rate is somewhere between five and 25 per cent.

They are statistics of which the couple must have been only too aware as they travelled by ambulance from the Birmingham Women's Hospital, where Laura had been staying, to University College Hospital in London last Monday morning.

Little miracles: The successful birth of Faith and Hope, pictured at just a few hours old, defied medical expectations

Laura, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, says: 'The next day they had a kind of dress rehearsal where they took us through everything. They explained about the operation and said what would happen afterwards.

'They had two dolls and they showed us how they would slide them into a plastic bag after they were born to keep their temperature up.

'Normally they put babies in cling film to keep them warm but they couldn't do that because they were joined so they got a little plastic bag and slipped them in up to their necks.

'Then they put the dolls on a table that turned through 360 degrees so we would be able to see them both separately and at every angle.

'The staff had two of everything. They had two drawers for all the doctor's implements and two teams in different colours. Faith was the green team, Hope was the yellow one.'

Two miniature tags were prepared with the names 'Miss Baby Williams' written on them and 'twin one' and 'twin two'.

The hospital also provided the two woolly hats that would not only keep the babies warm but also tell the doctors at a glance which twin was which. Laura and Aled provided two pairs of tiny mittens.

'It was the only thing we bought for them,' Laura says. 'We were starting a nursery plan with Mothercare to buy buggies and clothes and things, but because we didn't know what would happen we thought it was better to wait.'

A medical team of 30 from the hospital's Elizabeth Garrett Anderson wing was present at the birth.

Touching moment: Aled and Laura make contact with their daughters

Obstetric consultant Pat O'Brien, who performed the caesarean, told The Mail on Sunday: 'We had an anaesthetist and two assistants, three obstetricians, three midwives, theatre nurses, a ten-strong paediatric team, two consultants and a team of neo-natal nurses and nurse consultants.

'The operation is bigger because both babies have to come out together. Most caesareans are now done horizontally into the skin and into the womb.

'This time we had to make a large vertical cut from the top of Laura's stomach down, which we call a classical caesarean. Because both babies have to come out side by side you have to cut a size for two heads.

'Also Laura was 35 weeks, only five weeks short of full term, and so the babies were a good size. They had one umbilical cord which didn't present any particular problems but is very unusual. Twins usually have two umbilical cords even if they are sharing the same placenta.

'The most important thing is the movement of the babies. Because the connection is very delicate you can't be pushing and pulling in a way you could normally as it would put too much strain on the join. As we lifted the babies out, we had two people waiting to lift them to the incubation unit.

'But Laura and the girls are doing great. The birth and the initial care of the babies went as well as we could possibly have hoped for.'

Aled, who watched the birth, said: 'It was amazing, absolutely amazing but it was a bit scary at first. I had to scrub up and then, when I went into the operating room, I could just see all these doctors.

'They said it was the most people they've ever had in an operating theatre. Everyone there had a purpose and they were all ready to do their bit, drugs for Laura or helping the babies or the other doctors.

Waiting to emerge: The twins' faces are clearly visible in this 3-D scan, taken at University College Hospital the day before the caesarean

'Laura was on the bed and I was just behind her, so that if she turned she could see my face. I was standing with her and then it got to the stage when they were opening her up and I thought, "Oh, I'd better just sit down for a bit." It was a bit of a shock, I've never seen anyone's stomach opened up before.

'Then they were working on her and I saw they were ready to pull the twins out and I thought, "OK, I'll stand up and have a look." Ten minutes later, the babies were out.

'No words can describe it. I was so excited and happy and when I heard them screaming, it was like the world had lifted off my shoulders.

'The first thing I did was tell Laura they were all right and when I did, a single tear fell down her cheek.

'Even though she was still under general anaesthetic it seemed as if she could hear me. She just knew. After thinking the worst, just to hear them cry and know they're there and they're breathing was brilliant.

'And then to see them there ... they were so little. After all the cruel things that people said, they're just two little babies. It's not their fault they're conjoined.'

About an hour after the birth, and once Laura had begun to come round from the anaesthetic, the children were christened by the resident chaplain, the Rev Martin Freeman.

Laura's mother Wendy and Aled's parents Gwilym and Gill, from Anglesey, North Wales, were present, along with Aled and Laura's 18-month-old daughter Carly.

Such joy: Aled and Laura are relieved and excited by the birth of Faith and Hope

Laura says: 'We wanted to do it, just in case the worst happened. We wanted to leave it in God's hands.'

Aled adds: 'He got them into this world so it was the right thing to do. We were lucky because as well as the general anaesthetic they'd given Laura an epidural, which lasted for a few hours after the operation. It meant she could spend time with the girls and be at the christening.

'If she hadn't had the epidural she wouldn't have been able to do that, which would have been awful.'

Straight after the ceremony the babies were driven to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in an ambulance modified to accommodate both respirators.

For Laura, it was the hardest part of the process; more difficult than being told she was having conjoined twins and more painful than the operation.

She says: 'The people from Great Ormond Street brought them back to my bed so I could say goodbye. They wheeled them in on a trolley and I could just about reach them. They were all so wrapped up it was difficult to see them.

'I always knew they would have to go to a different hospital but I didn't realise how hard it would be.

'That night they put me on to the maternity ward and it was difficult being surrounded by everyone with their babies. All I could hear was babies crying. It was horrible.

Tiny teddy bears indicate which twin is Faith and which is Hope

'I wanted to cry but I managed to stop myself. When I had Carly she was right next to me and I couldn't take my eyes off her, so it's been strange not being able to see Faith and Hope.

'And it's weird because I can still feel them kicking. It's like they're still there even though I know they're not.'

Laura has since been discharged from University College Hospital, and will now be staying at Great Ormond Street, where yesterday afternoon she was allowed into intensive care to see her babies for the first time since Wednesday.

Both babies are sedated so they do not fight the respirators, but as Laura looked down at her twins, she said of Faith: 'Look, she's smiling.'

She added: 'It's so good to see them after all this time, but it is hard seeing them with all the tubes and not being able to help them. But they are so sweet.

'They are so small, their legs are tiny and you can see their arms which are across each other, hugging. Faith has still got her little hat on, although Hope has lost hers.'

So far, the twins have beaten all the odds but this is only the first step. The children are now in the care of Agostino Pierro, Nuffield Professor of paediatric surgery at Great Ormond Street, the leading centre in Europe for conjoined twins.

Surrounded by hi-tech equipment, Aled stands proudly over his daughters at Great Ormond Street

He said: 'Every conjoined twins case is different, but this case presents features not seen before here. The children are fairly stable and a large team of experts is considering the best management of the case.

'What is done will depend on the agreement of the parents, who are being closely briefed. We always seek to do the best for each child.

'The children have separate hearts. However, each heart has a significant congenital abnormality.

'In addition, large important blood vessels run from one child to the other. The children are joined at the liver and intestine and have other abnormalities, not currently an issue in the short and medium term.

'The current concern is that the two hearts and the joined circulation raise a risk that the children might suddenly deteriorate and need emergency separation surgery.

'Although the team would prefer to leave surgery until the children are older and stronger, increasingly we believe that this may be risky.

'A meeting will be held on Tuesday, to decide whether to attempt a planned separation this week, but it will be the parents who finally decide.'

A team of general surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, intensive care surgeons, radiologists, ethicists and nurses are all on standby, should the twins need an operation this week.

Aled and Laura do not know what the future holds, but of one thing they are certain: 'I've no regrets whatsoever,' says Laura.

'It was a big relief. I was really worried about what I was going to think, but now I've seen them they're just like any other normal babies to me, just a bit smaller. They're like little dolls.

'They look so cute. If I was allowed to pick them up I'd be so afraid as they're so tiny.'

Aled adds: 'Whatever happens to those two little girls, they have proved the doctors in Shrewsbury wrong. We're just so proud of them and now we've just got to keep on hoping and praying.'